Sybil Morial, civil rights activist and wife of New Orleans’ first Black mayor, dies at 91

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Sybil Haydel Morial, a civil rights activist, widow of New Orleans’ first Black mayor, Dutch Morial, and mother to former Mayor, Marc Morial, has died at age 91.

Her family announced her death Wednesday in a statement issued by the National Urban League, which Marc Morial serves as president and CEO. Details on the time and cause of death were not released.

“She confronted the hard realities of Jim Crow with unwavering courage and faith, which she instilled not only in her own children but in every life she touched,” the statement says.

Sybil Morial met Ernest Nathan “Dutch” Morial in the summer of 1954. She supported him as he ran for the legislature and the mayor’s office while she worked as a teacher and raised their five children.

Morial also was a leader in her own right. She founded the Louisiana League of Good Government, which helped Black people register to vote, and held numerous positions at Xavier University, one of the historically Black institutions in the city.

She also championed the building of a pavilion dedicated to the African American experience at the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans and helped produce a documentary about desegregation in the city.

“Mrs. Morial’s legacy as the matriarch of the iconic Morial family and her own contributions to civil rights and the city of New Orleans will forever be remembered with reverence and gratitude,” U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, a New Orleans Democrat, said in a news release.